Historic Preservation Commission Meeting Minutes August 2012

Mimi Styles, Bob Booher, David Stopak, Gail Littlefield and Margot Bohan, and Town Council Liaison Joli McCathran. The meeting began at 7:40 pm in the Town Council chambers.

Approval of Agenda and Adoption of Minutes

The proposed agenda was approved unanimously. Minutes of the June and July meetings were reviewed and adopted, as revised.

Projects

No projects were submitted for HPC review this month.

Council Report

Joli gave a report on the status of Jim Snyder’s Cherry Avenue/Maple Road property proposal to enclose his carport. She also mentioned a report coming out on exterior lighting in town and the decision to wait 3 months to address any requests for changes to these lights. Joli asked, on behalf of the PC, if Pat/Wendy could look into the history of lighting in Washington Grove, specifically to see what’s available in archives, i.e., old Pepco bills. Also discussed was the desire to pursue historic information on lights in town; zoning recommendations; and suitable historically-correct fixture recommendations. Through further discussion, it was suggested that the HPC do a survey of existing lighting fixture types and submit its findings to the lighting committee.

PC Meeting report

Noone attended the August meeting (every 1st Wednesday); so there was no PC Meeting report this month. David will attend the September meeting; Gail is slated for the October meeting; Mimi will go to the November meeting; Bob will attend the December meeting; and Margot will attend the January meeting.

Permit Review Procedure

Margot outlined progress and future plans to update the HPC aspects of the Town’s building permit application/review procedures. Margot will develop out the FAQs in anticipation of a 1-hour discussion at the Oct 16th HPC meeting. Bob will also bring the latest version of the design guidelines to this meeting for additional discussion/consideration.

Bulletin material

The Commission decided to take a “summer break” from submitting narrative for the monthly Town bulletin. With an eye toward future bulletin entries, Mimi will ask Pat and Wendy about a list of archive resources, including maps and photos. Given that the bulletin materials are broadcast on the Town website, discussion ensued about what to do with outdated HPC information on the site; the idea of archiving these materials as “old posts” will be considered in future discussions about updating the HPC information on the Town website.

Bridge Update

Bob presented a report on the bridge/CSX Project Workgroup status. Though there have been no further meetings with CSX, the Workgroup has done some work on language/narrative that will ultimately form the basis of the CSX-Washington Grove agreement.
Meadow Park
David Stopak has no report, but Joli did some work on a draft plan to be presented in September (to who?). The draft plan deals with tree installation, mowing takeover with MC Parks and Planning. All of this is awaiting the Legacy Open Space Director to come up with a final plan.

Towne Crest

David hasn’t sent the letter yet from HPC contesting the Towne Crest proposal. He plans to finish this up for signature within the next several weeks.

Solar Panel Guidelines

No solar panel guidelines to report out on.

Archive report

Board of Appeals

Nothing to report out re: the Board of Appeals

Design Guideline revisions

Bob would like to enhance the existing version of the Design Guidelines. He suggested we do this in parallel with making changes to the HPC aspect of the building permit application/review procedures. Action for the next meeting is to have all HPC commissioners read the latest version of the Design Guidelines (Bob is to send out this version to all meeting participants). As time allows at the next meeting, the plan is to look at these guidelines as well as the Town’s nomination to the National Register together with the Interior Secretary’s Historic Design Standards. Ideally, the HPC will be able to add figures/images to the current guidelines to more clearly elucidate character-defining features.